To think its fine for Bono to put his money in offshore tax havens while...

[MelodyvonPeterswald]

he encourages the rest of us ordinary mortals to do more to alleviate poverty and debt. This man deserves to be canonised.

[IdaDown]

^^yup.

‘Vanilla’ schemes such as ISAs, pensions, Unit Trusts etc... big difference with these

• you pay in out of salary subject to paye
  
• domicilled in U.K. if not, usually will have agreement to be subject to U.K. rules.
  
• U.K. investment scheme will be subject to and pay U.K. tax to the U.K.
  
• U.K. government want you to save, to stop you being a burden in old age
  
  Problem is global taxation
  
• where are you domicilled?
  
• where are you resident?
  
• where does your income originate from?
  
• how do we define employee and your method of payment.
  
  The U.K. isn’t the only country pissed off with this.

[ForalltheSaints]

Bono's tax affairs are not news.

As for the cast members of Mrs Brown's Boys, this is not funny, and neither is their show. Good excuse for the BBC to pull the plug.

[MiraiDevant]

Avoidance is not illegal. My point is that everyone who makes a decision to invest in an ISA rather than in somewhere that attracts tax is making that decision in order to save tax. Every time you make use of your tax free allowance in decisions about IHT or even when you gleefully load up with tax free booze you are doing it in order to avoid paying tax.

Either it is sensible to maximise your income and minimise your tax liability or it is immoral. I would never dodge tax, lie about my income or defraud the benefits system. I do however make decisions that are perfectly legal in order to avoid paying more than I have to.

If we believe the government should change the rules then we should vote for policies that we approve of. But we don't.

We like shopping at Amazon and drinking at Starbucks and playing with our iPhones. We love the fact that Amazon is cheap - we glory in it! Yet pretend to be outraged that they don't pay tax. We could buy at the local bookshop or drink in the local cafe - but we don't - and we are smug in our choice, (such a bargain!).

There are clear problems with the system but that is what we have. Don't like it, don't support it.

[MiraiDevant]

I am not a super -earner with offshore investments by the way - and there are differences - mainly in scale - but I hate the moral outrage.

People are mostly the same and don't generally pay more tax than they have to - or we'd all be voting for an equal wage and the rest going"in the pot"

Governments are getting pissed off with it but they also like to encourage business and jobs.

Anyway- time to go now. There is work to do.

[meditrina]

Well, I suppose it's because everyone here (except those with no pension, or a public service one funded from current taxation, is a beneficiary of the activities in the Paradise Papers.

Because the among biggest users of these schemes are pension funds. Those who want the best possible return from their pension pot are endorsing the use of such schemes by the big high-value entities.

Using any tax-free allowance on a personal level is also depriving the exchequer of revenue it might otherwise have raised

[AJPTaylor]

I cant get het up any more about tax avoidance that is legal.
If you can, campaign for tax reform.

[LakieLady]

What a load of sanctimonious fuckers. None of you have got an ISA or any other pension. yeah right.


The limit for ISA's is a fraction of the VAT on Hamilton's plane. ISA's are for poor people. Pension contributions (up to a relatively low limit) aren't taxed because the pension that is paid from those contributions is taxed. Taxing the contributions as well would amount to double taxation.

[YellowMakesMeSmile]

If they aren't doing anything illegal they are no different to millions of self employed people who make the most of expenses, loopholes, job titles etc to pay the minimum tax possible. Then many take back the little they do pay in benefits.

I'm not a fan of him but I'd guess if he gives to charity and encourages others then what he does tax wise is down to him as long as its legal.

[HRTpatch]

Bono backwards is ONOB

[BabsGangoush]

I remember reading years ago about Bono's 'charity'. I t had raised about £4 million but on actually given about £80k to charity.

What about Bob Geldof "give us yer money". No. All hypocrites.

[Mrscaindingle]

This boils my piss too but I doubt very much anything will change, I see Gary Barlow is still being feted on TV, on Children in Need etc telling us all to part with our money for charity.

He could have funded a few cash strapped councils with all the millions he has shored up. There's not enough outrage imo.

[LakieLady]

Any solution for this tax avoidance would have to be international imo. Even if all the crown dependencies and overseas territories stopped being tax havens, these companies and individuals would just run some similar scheme in Monaco, Mauritius or some other place.

The whole tax code is too complex imo. If it started from the premise that every individual, company, trust or other institution pays X per cent of any money they receive, and then have a set of exemptions (eg, first £12k of earned income, interest from an ISA, pension contributions up to the current limit).

Then, the onus would would be on the taxpayer to demonstrate that the money was in one of the exempt categories, rather than on HMRC having to prove that it was taxable under the huge web of tax legislation that currently exists.

My BIL has made £1.5 m plus in the last 5 years and not paid a penny in tax. He simply "moves into" the properties he develops so that they count as his home. The term is used loosely, in practice he just pays council tax, utility bills and his post sent there. If it's a really big, prestigious renovation, the family will move in for a few months once it's finished and on the market.

It's obvious to anyone that this is their sole source of income, neither of them do any other work or have other investments. And he has the audacity to complain about public services, especially the 9 months he had to wait for NHS surgery.

[PoppyPopcorn]

I think the last time that all this about tax avoidance hit the press that it was shown that the UK tax code was the world's longest and most complicated.

Ripping the whole thing up and starting again from scratch would be the best way of dealing with this, but there doesn't seem to be an appetite for that.

[NeverTwerkNaked]

I fully understand the difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion, what I don’t understand is people who can’t see the difference between “illegal” and “immoral”. Just because something is technically legal doesn’t mean it is ok (and my area of law is not tax, but I have been known to tell my in-house clients this “you can, but do you really think you should...” )

There’s a reason people are outraged by public figures, ones like the Queen and Bono etc, going out of their way to avoid paying any tax.
They act like they care, but don’t actually want to put their hands in their pockets

[BakedBeans47]

You pay the correct ammount of tax owed on the money you earn. Just as I do

As do I and the millions of other people on PAYE who have no choice. I pay every penny expected of me. If the intent is I pay x% in tax, that’s what I pay. That’s how it should be for everyone.

Where people can start exploiting loopholes to pay less than that x% they’re not paying their fair share or correct amount of tax. That’s the issue I have anyway.

As for tax avoidance given it’s exploiting loopholes in the law rather than a legitimate scheme that has been set up such as ISAs and pensions I prefer to say it’s “not illegal” rather than “legal”.

Jeez even the likes of RBS with their reputation that’s lower than an earthworm’s belly exited themselves from giving tax avoidance advice on the basis it was damaging to their reputation, hardly an organisation known for its morals and it was a step too far even for them!

[PiffleandWiffle]

FFS, yeah we'd save the millions there, not all those people on Appleby's leaked documents, channel 4 should be down at B&Q taking the details of all those tradesmen

The people on Appleby's leaked documents don't owe anything as they've done everything legally & as permitted by the system.

Not paying any tax on cash in hand is illegal & I'd like to see people that do it hammered, their finances investigated & large fines put in place.

They're the criminals, not the people using their brains to do what, to be honest, most of us would do if we could. (Damn this PAYE)

[KERALA1]

Have direct knowledge of the Queen not being at all public spirited and keen to keep her treasures just for herself and her family - not keen to share with the great unwashed...

[Rebeccaslicker]

"Do as I say, not as I do", innit!

[MelodyvonPeterswald]

"Give us yer foookin money naaaoowww!" gets you a knighthood. I just switch off when these super rich celebs rampantly self-publicising in the name of some "Aww look at Dear Old Sir Whatever...He does so much for cherrridee"


As a pp mentioned it is shocking when you ask them how much of what they raise (from haranguing the hard working, highly taxed ordinary people) and how much of it actually gets sent to the appropriate cause versus the amount spent on "administration" or "fund raising activities".

[WhatALoadOfOldBollocks]

By "canonised", do you mean shot with a cannon?
@ Saucy

What makes this so unpalatable to me is that most of these people are extremely rich already yet use every loophole they can to make even more money. They have more than they could possibly need in their lifetime so it's pure greed, at a time when the poor on benefits are being demonised by the right wing press, and there's austerity. When the fuck are these loopholes going to be closed?! Not while the tories are in power I bet seeing as Lord Ashcroft is named as one of these greedy fuckers.

[Capricorn76]

I wonder if the Taxpayers Alliance will have anything to say on the matter?

[PiffleandWiffle]

When the fuck are these loopholes going to be closed?! Not while the tories are in power I bet seeing as Lord Ashcroft is named as one of these greedy fuckers.

And they certainly weren't closed when Labour were in power from 1997-2010.....

[RoseAndRose]

They won't be closed whilst there are enough ticking pensions timebombs already

[Rebeccaslicker]

Aye, teflon Tony loves a good tax dodge

www.google.co.uk/amp/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/15/tony-blair-used-secret-fund-to-manage-multi-million-pound-fortun/amp/

[Badbadbunny]

And they certainly weren't closed when Labour were in power from 1997-2010.....

Tax avoidance and evasion flourished under Gordon Brown.